Rumbling along in the background, the Article 50 challenge is still going on. The latest update is HERE. David Davis has acknowledged receipt of the Statement of Facts & Grounds which were served on 28 December 2017 and has indicated that he intended to contest them and served Summary Grounds of Resistance on 12 January 2018.
But the legal team say it is notable that the SoS fails to identify in his Summary Grounds of Resistance where the Article 50(1) decision was actually made. He appears to maintain that no such decision was necessary. He claims that in the Gina Miller case the Supreme Court decided what was required for notification under Article 50(2) as a matter of domestic law and that those requirements were complied with by the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act and subsequent letter of notification from the Prime Minister.
The Secretary of State also claims that as individuals we have no right to complain of a failure by the UK to comply with the requirements of Article 50, which he claims regulates the relations between international states. We say that this is a domestic issue and no such decision to leave has yet been made.
However, the main focus of the Secretary of State’s Summary Grounds of Resistance is that permission for judicial review should be refused by the court as the claim is substantially out of time having not been brought promptly and in any event within three months after the grounds to make it first arose. The legal team reject this argument.
So, a reply to the Summary Grounds of Resistance was sent yesterday. In terms of the next steps, the claim papers will be sent to a judge. The judge will then consider them and determine whether to grant permission for us to apply for judicial review.
Just another legal headache for government lawyers. Good isn't it? Incidentally, the papers do not yet appear to have picked this up, but they soon will.
